Insomnia Severity Is Associated with a Decreased Volume of the CA3/Dentate Gyrus Hippocampal Subfield

doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.04.035

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 68, Issue 5, 1 September 2010, Pages 494-496

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.04.035 Get rights and content

Background

Prolonged disruption of sleep in animal studies is associated with decreased neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus. Our objective was to determine whether insomnia severity in a sample of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients and control subjects was associated with decreased volume in the CA3/dentate hippocampal subfield.

Methods

Volumes of hippocampal subfields in 17 veteran men positive for PTSD (41 ± 12 years) and 19 age-matched male veterans negative for PTSD were measured with 4-T magnetic resonance imaging. Subjective sleep quality was measured by the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.

Results

Higher scores on the ISI, indicating worse insomnia, were associated with smaller volumes of the CA3/dentate subfields (r = −.48, p < .01) in the combined sample. Adding the ISI score as a predictor for CA3/dentate volume to a hierarchical linear regression model after first controlling for age and PTSD symptoms accounted for a 13% increase in incremental variance (t = −2.47, p = .02).

Conclusions

The findings indicate for the first time in humans that insomnia severity is associated with volume loss of the CA3/dentate subfields. This is consistent with animal studies showing that chronic sleep disruption is associated with decreased neurogenesis and dendritic branching in these structures.

Section snippets

Methods and Materials

The details of the recruitment and characteristics of the PTSD and control sample is described in detail in Wang et al. (4). To summarize, the sample included healthy veteran subjects with PTSD (n = 17, mean age: 41 ± 12 years) and veteran control subjects (n = 19, mean age: 38 ± 15 years) with no history of traumatic brain injury, history of psychotic or bipolar disorders, or alcohol abuse or dependence within the previous 12 months and drug abuse or dependence within the previous 6 months.

Results

There was considerable overlap in sleep quality in the two groups: five PTSD subjects had sleep quality scores within the range of the comparison group. There was a strong inverse correlation between the mean volumes of the CA3/dentate subfields and the ISI score (r = −.48, p < .01) in the combined sample (Figure 1). There was a smaller but significant correlation of the ISI score with total hippocampal volume (r = −.36, p = .02) and a trend for the CA1 subfield (r = −.29, p = .09). There were

Discussion

The findings indicate for the first time in humans that subjective insomnia severity is associated with volume loss of the CA3/dentate subfields. The strong association of insomnia with the CA3/dentate subfield volume is consistent with animal models that have shown that chronic sleep disruption is associated with decreased neurogenesis and dendritic branching in these structures. New neurons in the dentate send axonal projections along the mossy fiber track to the CA3 region (reviewed in

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Brief ReportInsomnia Severity Is Associated with a Decreased Volume of the CA3/Dentate Gyrus Hippocampal Subfield

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Section snippets

Methods and Materials

Results

Discussion

Psychiatry Res

Neuroscience

Neuroscience

Neurobiol Aging

Neuroimage

Sleep Med

Psychiatry Res

Biol Psychiatry

Autoradiographic and histological evidence of postnatal hippocampal neurogenesis in rats

J Comp Neurol

Neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus

Cell Tissue Res

Brief Report
Insomnia Severity Is Associated with a Decreased Volume of the CA3/Dentate Gyrus Hippocampal Subfield